The present invention relates to a remote control device for remote-controlling a plurality of appliances such as TV sets, video sets and the like and a computer readable recording medium for recording the remote control program. More particularly, this invention relates to a remote control device that is easy to use and a computer readable recording medium for recording the remote control program.
Recently, with an increase in the performance, decrease in the size and price of a microprocessor, remote controllers have been provided with household electrical appliances (hereinafter referred to as control object appliance) such as TV sets, video sets, audio visual (AV) devices and the like for controlling the operation of these control object appliance remotely. The control object appliance can be controlled from a remote place without being touched by the user so that the operability thereof is improved. However, the number of remote controllers increase with an increase in the number of household electrical appliances and the remote controllers must be used selectively depending upon the control object appliance. Therefore, there occurs a problem that the operability drops. A means for solving this problem effectively has been demanded.
As described above, conventionally, one remote controller is provided with each of the control object appliances and the remote control is performed with the help of infrared rays or the like. As a result, when a number of control object appliances are to be controlled then the corresponding remote controllers are required to be operated successively. For example, when a user wants to operate both a TV set and video set, then the user presses the xe2x80x98power keyxe2x80x99 of the remote controller corresponding to the TV set and successively presses the xe2x80x98power keyxe2x80x99 of the remote controller corresponding to the video set. Consequently, after the power of the TV set is turned ON, the power of the video set is turned ON.
The user then presses a desired xe2x80x98channelxe2x80x99 key of the is remote controller corresponding to the TV set and further presses a xe2x80x98recordxe2x80x99 key of the remote controller corresponding to the video set. Consequently, after the desired channel is displayed on the TV set the video set starts the recording of the program on that channel. Accordingly, a complicated operation involving a plurality of remote controllers is required to be performed when remote controlling a plurality of appliances.
In order to solve the above problem, there is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 3-241555 a multi-remote controller capable of remote-controlling a plurality of control object appliances with a single remote controller. This kind of the multi-remote controller is provided with an individual registration function and a learning function. The individual registration function is a function in which each of the functions of the plurality of the remote controllers are individually registered in correspondence to different keys. The learning function is a function in which a plurality of functions are registered in correspondence to a single key.
When functions of the plurality of the remote controllers are to be registered individually with the respective keys of the multi-remote controller then the remote controller and multi-remote controller are positioned in such a way that they face each other and the user presses the remote controller key. The multi-remote controller thus receives a command from the remote controller and registers a function of the remote controller in correspondence to a key selected beforehand. By repeating such a registration procedure the user registers each function of the plurality of the remote controllers in the multi-remote controller.
On the other hand, when a plurality of functions of the remote controller are to be registered with a key of the multi-remote controller then the user carries out a series of operations (for example, pressing the xe2x80x98powerxe2x80x99 keyxe2x80x94pressing the xe2x80x98channelxe2x80x99 keyxe2x80x94pressing the xe2x80x98volumexe2x80x99 key etc.). After the multi-remote controller receives commands transmitted in succession corresponding to a series of operations as a command string, it makes the received command string correspond to a the selected key so as to register the plurality of functions with this key. When such a key is pressed then a signal corresponding to the command string is transmitted to the control object appliance and a series of operations is performed just by a one-touch operation.
Further, conventionally, a remote control device constituted of a computer having the above described multi-remote controller function has been proposed. In this remote control device a personal computer is combined with an infrared (IR) commander for transmitting a command signal to a control object appliance. A plurality of commands in a plurality of remote controllers are stored beforehand in a storage device and a sending order of the plural commands is programmed for a series of operations. Then, like the multi-remote controller, a command string signal is transmitted from the IR commander to the control object appliance.
As described above, with the emergence of the multi-remote controller or the remote control device constituted of a computer, the problem that a plurality of remote controllers are required to be operated separately in a troublesome way is solved.
However, because the conventional multi-remote controller or the remote control device constituted of a computer require a very complicated registration procedure this system is also not easy to use. Therefore, an ordinary user, particularly a user who is not accustomed to the electronic appliances will not possibly use such a multi-remote controller because the above registration procedure is complicated, or will preferably use the separate remote controllers even if they are unconvertible to use.
The present invention has been made in light of the above problem. It is an object of this invention to provide a remote control device capable that is easy to use because it does not require a complicated registration procedure to be performed by the user, and to provide a computer readable recording medium for recording a remote control program.
According to the first aspect of the invention, if the user carries out a serial operation of remote control, a plurality of commands are issued continuously from the plurality of the command issuing unit so that a control object appliance corresponding to a command is remote-controlled. At this time, the above plural commands are monitored by the monitoring unit and registered in a database as a command string by the database registering unit. This operation is repeated, so that a plurality of commands relating to the serial operation of the user are registered in the database.
If at least a command is issued from a plurality of command issuing units by the user operation, the estimating unit retrieves a command string containing the issued command from the database and estimates a command having the highest probability of occurrence as a command which will be issued by a plurality of command issuing units according to this retrieval result, for example. Then, if the above estimated command is issued by the command issuing unit instead of the plurality of the command issuing units, the given control object appliance is remote-controlled.
According to the first aspect, as described above, a monitoring result of commands issued from the plurality of the command issuing units is held as a command string in the database and a command to be issued from the plurality of the command issuing units based on this database is automatically issued by the estimated command issuing unit. Thus, ease of use by the user can be improved without a necessity of troublesome registering operation on the user side.
According to the second aspect of the invention, a monitoring result on commands issued from the plurality of command issuing units is held in the database with time information (for example, time, day, date) and based on this database, commands to be issued from the plurality of the command issuing unit are estimated with time information as one of determining criteria. Thus, the accuracy of an estimated command can be improved and further ease of use by the user can be improved.
According to the third aspect, the estimating unit deletes unnecessary command strings (for example, a command string composed of a plurality of commands for channel selection) from a retrieved command string with a content of the command (for example, channel selection of the TV set) as one of determining criteria so as to narrow down the retrieval result. Further, the content of a command is estimated by the estimating unit based on the narrowed retrieval result. That is, according to the third aspect of the invention, by referring to the content of a command as one of determining criteria, a command can be estimated based on an effective command string, so that the accuracy of the estimated command can be improved.
According to the fourth aspect of the invention, if a command is issued from the plurality of the command issuing units, the estimating unit retrieves a command string that command in the database and then according to this retrieval result, estimates a command to be issued by the plurality of the command issuing units. That is, according to the fourth embodiment, by carrying out a procedure which is usually performed last at first of a serial operation, the serial remote control operation is automatically carried out by a single operation. Therefore, ease of use by the user can be improved remarkably.
According to the fifth embodiment of the invention, if a command is estimated by the estimating unit, the approval unit inquires of the user whether or not the command estimation is right. Then, if the user""s approval is obtained via the approval unit, the estimated command issuing unit issues an estimated command. On the other hand, if the user""s approval is not obtained, in other words, there is a mistake in command estimation, the estimated command issuing unit does not issue the estimated command. Thus, according to the fifth aspect of the invention, the estimated command is not issued until the user""s approval is obtained. Therefore, the accuracy of the estimated command can be improved remarkably and a waste remote control can be avoided.
According to the sixth aspect of the invention, if the user operating a plurality of command issuing units is specified by the user specifying unit, the database registering unit registers a command string in a database-dedicated for the user. That is, according to the sixth aspect, an individual database is provided for each user. Further, the estimating unit estimates a command by using the database dedicated for the user. That is, according to the sixth aspect of the invention, a dedicated database is provided for each user. Therefore, as compared to a case in which a single database is shared by a plurality of users, the command estimation can be done with the user""s own interest and active pattern reflected, thereby the accuracy of the estimated command being improved.
According to the seventh aspect of the invention, state information (for example, power ON, OFF) is obtained from the control object appliance by the state information obtaining unit. Then, the estimating unit estimates a command with the state information as one of determining criteria. For example, if it is determined that an issue of an initially estimated command is waste based on state information, it is possible to estimate a command again. That is, according to the seventh aspect of the invention, the command estimation is carried out considering the state of the control object appliance. Therefore, the command estimation can be carried out accurately, thereby the reliability being improved.
According to the eighth aspect of the invention, in the schedule estimating unit, an issue schedule (for example, every day or a particular day of every week) for commands to be issued by the plurality of the command issuing units is estimated with time information (for example, time, day, date) as one of determining criteria. Then, an estimated command is automatically issued by the estimated command issuing unit according to the issue schedule, so that the control object appliances are remote-controlled. That is, according to the eighth aspect of the invention, a command is automatically issued according to the issue schedule based on the database, so that a troublesome schedule setting does not have to be carried out on the user side, thereby ease of use by the user being further improved.
According to the ninth aspect of the invention, when a serial operation about remote control is carried out by the user, a plurality of commands are issued continuously by a plurality of command issuing units, so that respective control object appliances corresponding to the command are remote-controlled. At this time, those plural commands are monitored in the monitoring step and registered in the database as a command string in the database registering step. By repeating this operation, a plurality of command strings about a serial operation by the user are registered in the database.
Here, when at least a command is issued from a plurality of the command issuing units by the user""s operation, a command string containing the issued command is retrieved in the estimating step. Based on this retrieval result, for example, a command string having the highest probability of occurrence is estimated as a command string to be issued by the plurality of the command issuing units. Then, in the estimated command issuing step, the above estimated command string is issued instead of the plurality of the command issuing units so as to achieve remote control on the control object appliance.
According to the ninth aspect of the invention, a command monitoring result issued from the plurality of the command issuing units is held in the database as a command string and based on this database, a command string to be issued from the plurality of the command issuing units is automatically issued in the estimated command issuing step. Therefore, ease of use by the user can be improved without a necessity of complicated registering operation on the user side.
According to the tenth aspect of the invention, in the schedule estimating step, an issue schedule (for example, every day or a particular time of every week) for commands to be issued from the plurality of the command issuing units is estimated with time information (for example, time, day, date) as one of criteria. Then, in the estimated command issuing step, the estimated command is automatically issued according to the above issue schedule, so that the control object appliance is remote-controlled. That is, according to the tenth aspect of the invention, a command is automatically issued according to the issue schedule based on the database. Therefore, a troublesome schedule setting does not have to be carried out on the user side, thereby ease of use by the user being further improved.
Other objects and features of this invention will become understood from the following description with reference to the accompanying drawings.